Who Are the Occupied Forces Hawaii Army?

A Hawaiian nationalist organization called the Occupied Forces Hawaii Army has recently made headlines.

On Monday, the 13th, members of the group occupying a 5-acre parcel of land in Kunia were served eviction papers following a court order that they leave the property. This follows multiple confrontations between Occupied Forces Hawaii Army members and representatives of Guyland LLC, who hold the deed to the plot in question. The group has adopted military uniforms and rank and bases its ideological foundation on an admixture of Hawaiian sovereigntism and ideas lifted out of the sovereign citizen movement. They disregard present-day land titles, believing all Hawaiian land belongs solely to descendants of ethnically native Hawaiians.

While they have only intimated violence, the Occupied Forces Hawaii Army seems poised to escalate as tensions rise.

This appears to be the conclusion drawn by federal authorities well.

The FBI claims that Lindsay Kinney — a man charged with leveling death threats at the Waianae harbor master, who’d impounded his boat, Honolulu Mayor Rick Blangiardi, and Lt. Gov. Josh Green — is a member of the group. But the group denies that his crimes were connected to the OFHA, claiming that Kinney acted of his own accord.

OFHA leader, Sam Lilikoi (Eric Christian Allen Nelson), is himself no stranger to violent confrontation. In the 1990s, he was convicted of armed robbery and served a 20-year sentence. While frequently loud and argumentative, the group has not yet escalated beyond theatrics. Nevertheless, it’s certainly not difficult to imagine what a paramilitary organization that claims to be in open and active war against the United States military might do in a state known for its heavy military presence. Hawaii is home to thirteen U.S. army bases.

These bases form the home turf of the United States Indo-Pacific Command. The Indo-Pacific Command is responsible for all U.S. military activities in the Pacific and as far into the Indian Ocean as the border between India and Pakistan. Given strained relations with China over the future of Taiwan and a lack of diplomatic ties with a vocally hostile North Korea, it’s not inconceivable that the Indo-Pacific Command may end up mobilizing in the not too distant future.

So, it is unsurprising that federal authorities are concerned.

So far, the Occupied Forces Hawaii Army has only involved itself in essentially non-violent action. However, given their sovereign-citizen ideological persuasions and stated self-perception as at war with the United States in a territory viewed as vital to U.S. security interests, whether they remain so is an open question.

Originally published at https://davidnwaeze.substack.com on June 16, 2022.